Suction device for dentures.



J. R. RICHARDS.

SUCTION DEVICE FOR DENTURES.

APPLICATIQR men out. 23. 1916.

1 283y95m Patwted Nov. 5, 1918.

JOHN ROGERS RICHARDS, 01E HAsTINGrS, ENGL.

spo'rron pnvron roia nnn'ruans.

fipeeification of Letters Patent.

Patented NW 5, 118,

Applicationfilefl October 23, 1916. SeriaI No. 127,172.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that l[, JOHN Roenns RIGH- ARDS, a sub ectof the King ofGreat Britain and Ireland, residing at 43 Wellington Square, Hastings,in the county of Sussex, England, have. invented certain new and usefulImprovements in and Connected with Suction Devices for Dentures, ofwhich the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in and connected with suctiondevices for dentures, such'suction devices comprising a retainer,mounted in a cavity in the dental plate or artificialpalate and adaptedto receive a perforated india-rubber suction disk, which is forced overthe retainer and serves to retain the denture in position in the mouthof the wearerby suction.

According to this invention, the retainer on which the suction disk ismounted, comprises a disk made of gold or other suitable material forforming the head or button Qfthe retainerand having a shank or shanksstamped out of it thus leaving a hole or holes in addition to theshankor shanks. The material, of which the artificial denture ismade,packed or forced around the shank or shanks to form the lneck of theretainer and into the hole or. holes left in the stud with the resultthat a very efficient key is produced between the stud and thedenture-and the neck of the retainer, being reinforced by the shank orshanks is extremely strong. The stud is conveniently temporarily. fixed.bycement orplaster of Paris in a hole or recess in a disk of pliable andsoft metal, such as; lead or other appropriate-material, the-said diskbeing primarily intended for forming the cavity or recess, in thedenture or artificial palate, for the suction disk and being-temporarilyconnected by pins or otherwise to the plaster cast of-the jaw or palate.The said hole or recess in the pliable metal disk is of a diametersomewhat larger than that of the head of the stud so that the latterwith the denture may easily be detached from the plaster: cast bybreaking the cement joint after. the plaster cast has been packed withthe material, such as india-rubber of which the denture is made andafter vulcanizing. Or the pliable disk-may be separated with theartificial denture from the plaster cast and is then removed fromthe-artificial denture. The pliable metal disk, referred to, is

made of soft and pliable material so as to be capable of being pressedon to the plaster cast and to thus assume a corresponding contour orformation. disk may merely be provided with a central perforation andthe stud is then cemented to the edges of the hole, but, preferably thestud is not allowed to be in direct contact with the plaster cast as,otherwise, in the finished denture, it would be liable to come intocontact With the wearers palate and would cause inconvenience. For thispurpose, the bottom of the perforated pliable The pliable metal a diskmay be furnished with a coating of cement or tin foil across the holetherein or a thin and easily removable metal plate-may be employed forthe same purpose or the pliable disk may be merely recessedto receivethe head of the stud and not perforated. Furthermore, the pliable disk,with the stud temporarily fixed therein may be covered With tin foil orthe like, leaving only an opening at the top, corresponding 7 to thediameter of the neck of the completed stud. One edge, say the upperedge, of the pliable disk may also have a head all around to form anannular recess all around the suction cavity for improving the suctionaction of the suction disk on the palate or 3' aw. If desired, the thinplate at the bottom of the pliable diskunay be merely separated bynearly cutting it through in one place or intwo or more places forfacilitating the removal from the denture, when vulcanized and removedfrom the plaster cast.

In order that the cement used for tempo.- rarily connecting the stud tothe pliable disk may'i not flow into the hole in the stud,

nor come too near to the shank or shanks, a.

molding the cement surroundingv the place where the neck of the stud isto be formed,

of a small a.

"shanks for the purpose of retainingand iio the saidcylinder'beingremoved when the cement has set or prior to the packing operation.

And in order that the invention may be more readily understood referencewill be had to the accompanying drawings, of whichigure 1- is a plan onan enlarged scale of a small gold disk for formingthe head of a retaineradapted to receive a suction disk and igl' 2 is a section of the golddisk on the li fi 17 1, 14

Fig. 3is aplan of a soft and pliable metal disk. adapted to form asuction cavity in an artificial denture. 'F ige" is a sectionalelevation of the said pliable disk with .the small gold disk temporarilyattached thereto and Fig. 5 ,i is a plan thereof. Fig. (iis a sectionalelevation of the pliable disk and small gold disk temporarily securedtoa plaster cast or model. Fig. .7 is asimilar view showingv the dentureinthe course of being made and Fig, 8 is asimilar view of the dentureformed withthe suction cavity and stud and with a suction disk appliedthereto.

I As shown in Figs. 1 and 2 the head or button for forming the retainerconsists of a disk arof gold or other suitable material having twoshanks or prongs Z) 5 stamped out" and leaving an oblong hole therein.This disk a is laidwith the shanks 6 uppermost in a central recess in adisk (Z, see Figs. 3, land ,5. This disk d is made of soft and pliablemetal, such as lead or pewter, and has for purpose, to form the suctioncavity in thedenture.

. ,The edges of the central recess e may, if desired, be serrated orroughened, or as shown in Fig. 4c the outer periphery or wall of therecess is undercut or inclined to improve the joint to be temporarilymade between the stud and the pliable disk cl. Obviously the pliabledisk may also be constituted by a perforated disk and an unperforateddiskjoined together. This temporary joint between the pliable disk andthe stud iris produced by inserting or running cement 1" into.the-recess 6 between the outer wall thereof and the stud a, but in orderthat the cement f shall not touch the shanks I) nor penetratethe oblonghole in the stud a the oblong hole c in the stud and the. prongs .b arecovered with or embeddedin a small form or filling g of wax or othereasily renioyableor fusible or evanescent material because the shanks band oblong hole 0 are subsequently to be inclosed and filledrespectivelyby the material of which the denture'is made, for thepurpose of forming the neck of the retainer and for keying thelattersecurely to the denture. Or instead of using ,a filling of wax, asmall hollow or axially perforated and cylindrical form of india-rubbermay be employed. The pliable disk d is nearly covered with tin foil h,leaving only a small central opening corresponding to the filling g andconsequently to the subsequently completed neck of the stud.

The tin foil (and also, if desired, the pliable disk) is or are nearlydivided into sectorsor otherwise by for example a number of shallowradial cuts orgrooves indicated by the dottel lines 2', see Figs. 3 and5.

For the purpose of producing an artificial denture with a retainer andsuction cavity complete, the pliable disk 0? is pressed as shown in Fig.6 on to the proper place in the plaster cast l7. It may here beinterpolated that the pliable disk here shown is furnished with a bead Zall around, but it is not essential. The pliable disk is then connectedto the plaster cast 70 by driving some small pins m through a few holesa (see also Figs. 3, 4 and situated near the periphery of the pliabledisk. If a form 9 of unvulcanized rubber be employed, it is left inposition' or if a filling of wax be used the wax may be removed from thestud or it maybe left and will disappear on the application of heat. Thedenture 0 (Fig. 7) is then packed or formed, the indie-rubber beingpressed into and filling the space reserved for the neck of the retainer:around the shanks b and into the hole in the disk a forming the head ofthe retainer. The india-rubber is then vulcanized and the denture isthen easily removed from the plaster model 70 with the pins m becausethe latter are easily withdrawn from their holes in the plaster cast orthe heads of the pins may be so small that the holes a in the pliabledisk easily expand on a slight amount of force being employed inwithdrawing the denture 0 from the plaster model 70 .and the pins mremain in the latter. It isthen only necessary to divide or cut thepliable disk at or the tin foil 7;, or both along the radial grooves orcutsi (Figs. Sand 5) by, means of a tool with a sharp cutting edge andto break the cement joint f, between, the stud a and pliable metal diskto allow the latter to be removed. -On the. removalof the pliable disk,the suction cavity 8 (Fig. 8) in the denture 0 will be revealed and. itis only necessary to force the soft india-rubber disk over the disk aforming the head of. the stud to render the denturecomplete in thisrespect.

I claim 1. A stud forattachment to an artificial denture consisting of anon-corrodible metal disk having a rectangular perforation therein, andshanks extending outwardfrom the disk at opposite ends of theperforation and constituted by the metal cut from the perforation.

2. A stud for attachment to an artificial nasaaoa denture consisting ofa non-corrodible metal disk having a rectangular perforation therein andintegral shanks rectangular in crosssection at opposite ends of theperforation and constituted by the metal cut from the perforation.

3. For the formation of a suction device for an artificial denture, adisk of pliable material, a non-corrodible metal disk having arectangular erforation therein and mounted in the plia 1e disk andhaving integral shanks cut from the perforation and extending outward atopposite ends of the lat ter and projecting beyond the surface of thepliable disk, temporary means covering the shanks and closing theperforation, and tem porary means connecting the disks and covcring aportion of the non-corrodible disk.

4L. An artificial denture having a suction retainer consisting of aperforated non-corrodible metal disk having shankscut therefrom to formthe perforation, said shanks being embedded in and completely surroundedby a portion of the denture pro j ecting from the face of the latter.

5. For the formationof a suction device for an artificial denture, thecombination, with a perforated disk of non-oorrodible metal and havingshanks constituted by the metal displaced by the perforation of the saiddisk, of a disk made of pliable material adapted to receive the saidperforated disk with its shanks projecting on one side beyond thesurface of the said pliable disk,

- means for temporarily attaching the said perforated disk to thepliable disk, a form of the shape of the neck of the retainer to beformed and surrounding the said shanks, and means for temporarilyattaching the Gopies of this patent may be obtained for said pliabledisk to a plaster cast of a jaw, substantially as set forth.

6. For the formation of a suction device for an artificial denture, thecombination, With a perforated disk of non-corrodible metal and havingshanks constituted by the metal displaced by the perforation of the saiddisk, of a disk made of pliable material recessed to receive the saidperforated disk with its shanks projecting on one side beyond thesurface of the said pliable disk, means for temporarily attaching thesaid perforated disk to the pliable disk, a form of the shape of theneck of the retainer to be formed and surrounding the said shanks, andmeans for temporarily attaching the said pliable disk to a plaster castof a jaw, substantially as set forth.

7. For the formation of a suction device for an artificial denture, thecombination with a perforated disk of non-corrodible metal and havingshanks constituted by the metal displaced by the perforation of the saiddisk, of a disk made of pliable material recessed to receivethe saidperforated disk with its shanks projecting on one side be yond thesurface of the said pliable disk, grooves partially severing the saidpliable disk into sections to facilitate its ultimate removal, means fortemporarily attaching the said perforated disk to the pliable disk,

a removable form of the shape of the neck a of the retainer to be formedand surrounding the said shanks, a covering of tin foil for the pliabledisk and means for temporarily attaching the said pliable disk to aplaster cast of a jaw, substantially as set forth.

JOHN ROGERS RICHARDS.

five cents each, by addressing the "flommissioner or Eaten,

Washington, D. U.

